Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a texturized material of a marine product from "surimi" (which is defined, here in this specification, to mean a mechanically deboned fish, or animal, meat that has been washed with water and mixed with cryoprotectants for a good frozen shelf life) of the same and, more particularly, to a method of producing a texturized material of a marine product from the "surimi" of the same so as to provide a novel texturized foodstuff, the method comprising the steps of treating by means of a twin-screw extruder at least one selected from the group consisting of a material prepared by heat-treatment of "surimi", gelatinized fishpaste prepared by addition of subordinate raw material to the "surimi" and subsequent heat-treatment of the resulting mixture, and a material prepared by gelation of the "surimi" through the setting of the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The processed foodstuffs which use "surimi" of a marine product include marine kneaded products such as gelatinized fishpaste, fish-meat sausage and fried fish balls. These kneaded products, however, are not in conformity with the western life style of food. The products, similar to such kneaded products, which are prepared from squid, shrimp, crab, scallop, animal meat, or the like and which could conform to the western life style of food, have thus been desired to appear. To this end, the "surimi" must be processed into a textured formation. On the other hand, the "surimi" is high in water content and hence is a viscous material. For this reason, the methods which are usually adopted in the prior art have not been satisfactory as a method of processing on an industrial mass-production basis.
Under the above-mentioned existing circumstances, the present inventors made their study of the matter from the standpoint of processing machines involved and have found that the "surimi" can be easily textured when it is treated by means of a twin-screw extruder. On the other hand, however, when the "surimi" paste alone or in combination with mixing additives is treated with the extruder as it stands, it presents a "mass-flow" phenomenon because it is high in water content and is viscous. As a result, when pressure increases at the forward end of the extruder, the "surimi" or "surimi" mixture becomes liable to present a reverse flow, so that induced fluctuation of retention time of "surimi" within the extruder occurs, resulting in inability, without minute operational adjustments of the extruder, of maintenance of the high pressures and temperatures required for texturization of "surimi".